


Koi and Lilied Water

by samsarapine



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Blanket Permission, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-14
Updated: 2010-03-14
Packaged: 2017-10-07 23:58:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samsarapine/pseuds/samsarapine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanzeon Bosatsu reads a letter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Koi and Lilied Water

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/saiyuki_time/profile)[**saiyuki_time**](http://community.livejournal.com/saiyuki_time/) challenge 59: Mix and match. Challenges chosen: 'Ordinary Day' and 'Letters to the Dead', combined time allowance 90 minutes. Written in 83 minutes; ten more for proofing and editing.

  
  
  
**Entry tags:** |   
[angsty](http://samsarapine.livejournal.com/tag/angsty), [challenge: saiyuki_time](http://samsarapine.livejournal.com/tag/challenge:%20saiyuki_time), [fic](http://samsarapine.livejournal.com/tag/fic), [humour](http://samsarapine.livejournal.com/tag/humour), [kanzeon bosatsu](http://samsarapine.livejournal.com/tag/kanzeon%20bosatsu), [pg-13](http://samsarapine.livejournal.com/tag/pg-13), [saiyuki](http://samsarapine.livejournal.com/tag/saiyuki)  
  
---|---  
  
_**Fic: "Koi and Lilied Water", Kanzeon Bosatsu, Nataku, Goku, ikkou. Gen, PG-13.**_  
**Title:** Koi and Lilied Water   
**Author:** [](http://samsarapine.livejournal.com/profile)[**samsarapine**](http://samsarapine.livejournal.com/)  
**Rating:** PG-13   
**Characters:** Kanzeon Bosatsu, Nataku, Goku, the ikkou  
**Warning:** Not a death fic. More of a 'not-really-alive' fic.  
**Notes:** Written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/saiyuki_time/profile)[**saiyuki_time**](http://community.livejournal.com/saiyuki_time/) challenge 59: Mix and match. Challenges chosen: 'Ordinary Day' and 'Letters to the Dead', combined time allowance 90 minutes. Written in 83 minutes; ten more for proofing and editing.  
**Summary:** Kanzeon Bosatsu reads a letter.

 

 

Was it Kanzeon Bosatsu's imagination, or had the grey head moved a bit since se'd visited yesterday?

No, se decided. Simply hope's little joke, and perhaps a stray breeze moving the furthermost tendril of hair a fraction of a breath to the left.

Se crossed the marble courtyard until se stood by the puppet prince's side. Se didn't touch him; se never did, because he wouldn't appreciate it if he were awake. No one touched his body, nor had touched it for five hundred years. The touches before that had all been made through blades and bandages, gloves of metal and pain that separated this body from the others that had surrounded it.

Except for one touch, banished, now given to others.

"Wake up, brat. It's time for your daily missive."

The breeze moved the tendril of hair another fraction.

Se crouched beside the reflecting pool. The cool water looked inviting, so se sat on the edge, hir legs submerged amidst the water lilies and the koi and the echoes of the mortal world, and felt them brush across hir toes and swirl behind hir knees like silk caught in the wind.

*****

Goku bit his lip with glee.

Gojyo. In the woods. Asleep.

Alone.

Moving across the clearing silent as a heartbeat, Goku squatted by Gojyo's side.

He waved his hand in front of Gojyo's face. The kappa's eyes didn't open and his faint snores never missed a beat.

Grinning widely, Goku considered his options. It had been a long time since he'd caught the kappa unawares, and he figured that the payback should be pretty good. The memory of Gojyo's last prank – switching out salt for sugar last night at the table, the bastard! – burned inside him. Gojyo had hit him where it hurt, during dessert, Goku's favourite time of the day, right after the first bite of breakfast and snatching the last spring roll from under Gojyo's chopsticks. Times like those were sacred, and Gojyo knew it, but had pranked him anyway.

He needed to hit the kappa where it hurt.

*****

Once back in camp, Goku chose his position carefully. He was pretty pleased with himself. He'd analysed things, just like Hakkai'd taught him. Strategy, like. Close enough to Hakkai so that he could count on Hakkai to step in if needed – though it would be a shame, since he was cooking dinner – far enough from Sanzo to avoid the fan or the gun if he got pissed, yet close enough to watch his face, which was currently hidden behind a newspaper. Within reach of several trees and some big rocks if he needed to take cover.

Plus, bonus. He was right next to the food pack. He rummaged through it for a few apples and some dried squid and nearly missed Gojyo strolling back into camp.

"Hello, Gojyo," Hakkai said. He didn't look up from the vegetables he was chopping.

Sanzo glanced up from his paper, looked down at it again.

Blinked.

Looked up.

And started laughing, all buzzsaws and snorts that made shivers go up Goku's back and nearly burst out his nose.

"What?" Gojyo demanded, glaring. "Did you go mental or something, you stinking priest?"

Goku tried to squish his giggles down into his belly, waiting for more.

Hakkai looked up. Blinked. Cleared his throat.

"Er, Gojyo?"

"What?" Gojyo blinked back at Hakkai.

The long swipes of black marker that decorated his eyes moved almost like real eyelashes, while the blue marker on his eyelids flashed and disappeared, just like a girl's did. Goku had maybe exaggerated the curve of the lips just a little too much, and they were a bit unbalanced now that he looked closely, but hey! the red _really_ stood out.

"You look… very nice," Hakkai said, as if someone had asked his opinion and he didn't want to disappoint them, but wanted them to know that he thought it was unfair that they'd asked him in the first place. He tilted his head a bit. "Though I think that your lipstick clashes with your hair. Perhaps a peach tone, instead?"

The newspaper was crushed into Sanzo's lap. It made crunching noises as his body shook harder.

"What the fu--?" Gojyo glanced wildly around the campsite until he spotted the mirror that he'd hung on a tree earlier when he'd given himself a shave. His eyes widened, the marker-lashes making the pervy jerk almost look pretty. "You fucking little monkey bastard! Don't you dare tell me this is permanent marker, you little prick!"

Goku lost it completely, rolling on the ground and clutching his sides. _Oops_, he realised a split second later, _gotta move!_ He sprang to his feet and headed towards the nearest cover, Gojyo at his heels, the echoes of Sanzo's belaboured gasps for air music to his ears.

Yeah. It was _so_ worth it!

_Funny, though,_ he thought as he dodged behind a boulder, nearly incoherent with laughter, _it's sorta like this happened before, only it didn't._

He wished a thousandth time for someone his own age to hang around with.

It would be so cool.

*****

A flicker--?

No. Not yet.

"You're missing out, kid," Kanzeon Bosatsu said, climbing gracefully to hir feet. "He's having a hell of a time down there." The water vanished from hir legs, though the blousened silk of hir trousers continued to cling as though wet. It was quite sexy, se decided, and left it like that. "I'll be by tomorrow for his next note."

Nataku sat, unmoving.

Se sighed and smiled, resisting the sudden urge to ruffle his hair. "I wonder," se said softly, watching his vacant eyes, "when we gods are gone, do you think anyone will still write us letters?"

He didn't answer, of course.

Se shrugged and stretched. Perhaps a game of Go would be nice. A beer, too, now that se thought of it.

Se wandered from the courtyard.

*****

Nataku waited.

Not yet.

Not yet.

Not yet.

_But soon,_ the koi and the lilies and the faint laughter whispered.


End file.
